Top of the curve
I’m going to be brief this week. I’m busy with a couple of recent sales and a new listing. I suppose we are in the middle of the Autumn market. Those home sellers who wanted to list have listed. Those home buyers who want to buy are buying. It’s happening now. It’s not over yet. Of course it never is. The real estate market sometimes slumbers but we are still more than a month away from that — the December-January slowdown. Until then, busy agents like me are busy with the last rally of the year.

The real estate trends for 2019Canadian real estate trends in 2019 are expected to form in response to these three social and technological movements:
• The way people live and work is becoming increasingly remote. How will real estate adapt?
• The emergence of VR, AI, autonomous vehicles, and other disruptive technology. Will the real estate industry innovate too?
• Uncertainty in economic markets has pushed all industries to address affordability as a forefront issue, including the real estate and construction sectors.
Last but not least, an increasingly environmentally conscious urban consumer (and stricter policies on the regulatory end) will reinforce sustainability trends when it comes to energy consumption and sustainability in new real estate developments.

What are the pros and cons of living in a small home?
My wife and I recently returned from a short holiday in Taiwan and Hong Kong. We were there visiting old friends and touring around. When we travel, we like to pretend to be locals. We like to slow down, chill out and relax. We like to say in Airbnbs. Besides the benefits of living like “real people” (as opposed to tourists), we get to see how real people live —> Real people in Taiwan and especially Hong Kong have very little space in their homes.
I like it. Here are the pros and cons of living in a small home

Top millennial hot spots in 2018 – 85 Canadian cities ranked
Quality employment and affordable housing are two key factors that motivate millennials to settle down in a new city. But this upbeat generation obsessed with life-work balance is looking for more than just a well-paying job and a nice house. They want engaging leisure activities, opportunities to socialize with other like-minded millennials, eco-friendly resources, and a safe but exciting city where they can thrive.

The city that had too much money
Vancouver was the first place to experience the tidal wave of Chinese cash. Now the city is leading efforts to stop it.

World’s longest sea-crossing bridge opens between Hong Kong and China
A $20-billion bridge connecting Hong Kong and Macau to the mainland Chinese city of Zhuhai is set to finally open this week, marking the completion of the longest sea-crossing bridge ever built, nine years after construction began.

The end to the world as we know it
I recently had an epiphany, or was it a revelation? Something I long held to be true, a conventional wisdom was proven to be false, proven to be exactly the opposite of what I (and everyone I know) thought to be true. And then I realized that this happens all the time. Knowledge now is so ubiquitous. We have these ideas, maybe left over from simpler times that have since been proven false — but nobody told us.
Does that ever happen to you? You suddenly realize that you are doing it wrong, that you learned it wrong, that something shifted but you didn’t? It happens to me two or three times a year now.